Thursday, July 24, 2008
East Orlando Sun
http://www.eosun.com/catalog/catalog.php?catalog_id=74&start_page=18
www.eosun.com - July 24-30, 2008

Full Sail graduate risks it all to make his own movies.

JENNIFER KNIGHT-ARI Staff Writer

Dusty Clark puts his life on the line for his art.

By day, he is a technician who locates bombs near military basesin old testing areas and marks them for cleanup. If it ís not deemed too dangerous, he may even help dig up the ordnance. The 26-year-old works outdoors, 10-12 hours a day, six days a week. Finding unexploded bombs from as far back as World War II. It pays well.

"It's physically and mentally draining," he admitted from Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La., more than 700 miles from his hometown of Sevierville, Tenn.

The potential danger lurking at every job takes its toll emotionally, too. Clark does it because he's a filmmaker. He directed and produced a short film, Caregiver. And the Full Sail University graduate recently completed another short, In a Blink, which set him back about $12,000.

"He's nuts, he ís absolutely insane for doing what he ís doing," said Jonathan Rivera, who went to Full Sail with Clark. "But it ís very admirable. He actually puts his life and well-being on the line to help fund his movies."

Clark's love of cinema goes back to sixth grade, when he and friend Michael Mynatt- both avid fans of Jurassic Park- shot little movies on a camcorder. "We never had a script. It was stupid stuff, like there was something in the woods and we were trying to get away from it," Mynatt said with a laugh. "But then, that ís what (The Blair Witch Project) ended up being, so we should've put it out before they did, I guess."

In a Blink is the story of an alienated, drug-addicted teen who, trapped by a car wreck, has a chance to reevaluate her life. "Her family's broken. She's looked for the emotional care she needs in the wrong places, and it's led her down the wrong paths. But the wreck finally shows her how her decisions are affecting her," Clark said. "She's treated her mother badly, but her mother is the only one really hunting for her. It's a redemption story."

The character of Emily came from people Clark has known. The setting was his old Dodge Shadow, which stopped running after he returned from Full Sail, and sat in his parents driveway for months. One day Dad called him up, and wanted it gone. And In a Blink was born, delivered by a tight-knit crew of hopeful filmmakers. Composer Nathaniel Scott, a student at the University of Kentucky who Clark met on the set of an indie film, created the score-- a spare, but not simplistic, melody. What he lacks in orchestra, Scott makes up for in equipment. He turns his own high-end software (worth about $15,000) to layer sounds.

"I come up with things I never would have alone, because I'm collaborating with someone else's thought process," he said. "The main character has a drug addiction, and the drugs are the unnatural element, something alien, something that should not be there and needs to be cast out. We associated drugs musically with a dark, synthesized texture." Though Mynatt has his eye on the directorís chair, he agreed to edit Clark's film. He edits a Knoxville-area TV show that features local bands, and saves money for his own directing debut.

"I love being able to help him, I know he would do it for me. As much as we like to pretend it does, nothing goes perfect. So we can both learn from those experiences," he said. "Dusty's so outgoing, so ready to get down and dirty. He's very enthusiastic, he can get everyone excited about a project."

Through thick and thin.

It takes a thick skin to work in movies, where rejection comes easily, success a million-to-one shot.

"We had such a large class in filmschool [at Full Sail University], but so many people got discouraged by the film industry and don't do it anymore. It's very hard," said Rivera, first assistant camera for In a Blink and a Brooklyn resident who does camera work for reality TV shows like TLC's Say Yes to the Dress. "We try to stick with our crew. It's about networking and staying with people you know and trust, like a family. "I really see Dusty going places. He's very passionate about it. He eats and breathes and lives movies.

Clark's foray into Hollywood in 2005 was intimidating. Stepping onto the set of The Island, a $126 million science-fiction film, was light years from the sometimes chaotic low-budget indies. "Everyone's extremely intelligent and sure of themselves. And watching them work, being able to visualize exactly how films are made, was totally amazing," he said. He went to work on other films. He knew the equipment, the jargon. He was a maintenance man for the dolly, a small truck that holds the camera, crew and sometimes the director.

"A lot of people complain about Full Sail. Some people come out of there and don't learn as much," he said. "But if you want to learn, and you have the desire and passion to do something, they give you the tools you need to succeed." But his knowledge wasn't ever going to get him in the directorís chair. Clark needed a demo reel, an example of his work. He had one from Full Sail, but it was a collaboration with three other students, and every studio told him the same thing: "We want to know who made the good mistakes and who made the bad mistakes; this doesn't mean anything to us." So he came back home to the SmokyMountains to make his own movies. He is seeking funding for Life Audit, a full-length feature film that takes place 30 years in the future, when genetic modifications allow people to live forever. Government chooses to deal with the overpopulation crisis by looking at people's lives and deciding whether they've been a help, or a hindrance, to society. Those who are helpful get a life extension.

"I did some research, and the top scientists are saying this isn't science fiction," he says. "We explore a soldier coming back from war who gets a life extension. But te wanted to die on the field. Now he's got to live forever with these bad memories."